Many integrated circuits (ICs) and other circuits or electrical devices employ one or more circuit components or other components or devices that are configured to receive and/or operate in response to the application of low voltage signals (and/or to receive and/or operate in low current or lower power conditions). In regard to such circuits or devices, the inadvertent or accidental application of high voltage signals (or high current or high power), even for a short period of time, can result in damage to the circuits or devices or the one or more circuit components or other components or devices therein.
Notwithstanding efforts to minimize the likelihood that such high voltage signals (or high current or high power) are experienced, there still remain circumstances where such events cannot be entirely eliminated. For example, in some ICs such as mixed signal analog ICs, there can be low voltage and high voltage pins situated very closely to one another along the exterior of the IC package, such that there exists a risk of a pin-to-pin short between the low voltage and high voltage pins, for example, during a testing process or due to dendritic growth. Additionally, although efforts have been made to develop circuits or systems intended to minimize inadvertent coupling of the high and low voltage pins or intended to diminish the negative effects of such coupling, a number of such conventional circuits or systems are undesirably complex and/or costly to implement.
Given such concerns it would be advantageous if there could be developed new circuits, circuit components, systems, devices, or other features, and/or methods of operating such circuits, that could alleviate such concerns associated with the application of high voltage signals to (and/or application of high current or high power with respect to) the pins or terminals of ICs or other circuits or electrical devices, where with respect to at least some embodiments such newly-developed features were relatively simple and/or cost-effective to implement.